Optimization of multipoint incremental sheet metal forming of SS430 sheets using GRA

326-333Incremental sheet metal forming (ISF) is one of the best flexible manufacturing processes used to convert a sheet metal into required final shape using tool movement. In incremental sheet metal forming process, a single pointed forming tool is allowed to move over the sheet metal as per the pre-programmed numerical control of a computer. The advantage of making any complex part without die confirms its importance in the emerging automated industries. But this process has some limitations such as less formability and high surface roughness compared to the conventional forming process. Longer processing time is another drawback of the incremental sheet forming. This paper proposes a newly designed multi-point incremental forming (MPIF) tool to avoid the drawbacks faced by industry in increasing the formability and wall angle of the sheet metal with reduced time. The sheet metal stainless steel (SS) grade 430 has been used for forming process and the outputs obtained from MPIF and single point incremental forming (SPIF) have been compared with respect to wall angle, formability, surface roughness, spring back and forming time. Grey relational analysis (GRA) has been used to find the optimal value for the various responses obtained. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) calculation method has also been used to find the factors that influence the output responses. The responses obtained by the experiment have proved that the multipoint tool results better output